


The Dragon's Cry

by dalyullys



Category: Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates
Genre: F/F, F/M, I hate when it has tons of pairings unrelated, I put the main relationships and the important ones, Mental Health Issues, Mentions of Birthright Route, Mentions/Flashbacks of Conquest Route, Multi, Post-Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest, Revelations Route, Suicidal Thoughts, Through the plot you'll discover the rest and the changes from a route to the another, redemption arc
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-03
Updated: 2018-03-03
Packaged: 2019-03-26 06:06:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,941
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13851660
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dalyullys/pseuds/dalyullys
Summary: She felt her pulse throbbing through her whole body. Everyone behind her has giving their all to make her reach the empty vessel of Takumi. She could still hear the cry of her children over their father, blood staining their armors, their clothes, their skin. She could still feel Xander's hand giving her a extra push when she jumped from his horse, almost at the same time Camilla blocked a flying axe with her body to give her a chance.The purple glow of Takumi's arrow blinded her for a second before feeling how it penetrated in her chest. Her skin acted in a second, pushing her dragon skin in order to cover the wound, and her left arm acted with all her might.It was just a second later, when the Yato cut through Takumi's throat like butter, that his eyes seemed to change from red to amber again.Her scream was heard all over the tower, like a thousand of wyvern which collided in rage.





	The Dragon's Cry

She felt her pulse throbbing through her whole body. Everyone behind her has giving their all to make her reach the empty vessel of Takumi. She could still hear the cry of her children over their father, blood staining their armors, their clothes, their skin. She could still feel Xander's hand giving her a extra push when she jumped from his horse, almost at the same time Camilla blocked a flying axe with her body to give her a chance.

The purple glow of Takumi's arrow blinded her for a second before feeling how it penetrated in her chest. Her skin acted in a second, pushing her dragon skin in order to cover the wound, and her left arm acted with all her might.

It was just a second later, when the Yato cut through Takumi's throat like butter, that his eyes seemed to change from red to amber again.

Her scream was heard all over the tower, like a thousand of wyvern which collided in rage.

Her hands acted by themselves, touching her body in panic and trying to catch a breath. The dizziness was secondary when all her senses were screaming at the same time, trying to make her feel that she was very much alive. Her body felt extremely hot, reaching the point she thought she was going to combust but a pair of icy hands held her by her face before an icy body was pressed against hers.

"Milady, I'm here," she knew that voice, the low tone and the stingy feeling of the ice against her skin. “It was a nightmare, just a nightmare. Everything is fine.”

She was pretty sure her eyes would pop off her sockets when she realized Flora’s condition. She was naked and, under the soft moonlight, she could detail a few upcoming bruises in her skin. Her throat felt dry and she felt unable to articulate something, letting go a low growl and startling the maid. Flora took her robe —one she thought lost long ago, when she had left _Hoshido_ — to cover herself and run to the corner of the room. Seconds later, she was again by her side and giving her a cup full of water.

It didn’t feel real, even when Flora managed to calm her breathing. She couldn’t speak yet, horrid scenes still flashing before her eyes and making her doubt where she was. Her hand went to her face and the other woman flinched with the sudden move, but she didn’t leave her side. Her ears felt more sensitive than ever, roaring with war cries and the clash of weapons.

“Lady Atlas,” the flashes and roaring sound in her ears stopped when Flora called her name. Like a balm that healed her from within her soul. “Do you want me to call Gunter again? I told him to wait outside.”

“No, told him to go back to his chamber,” her voice didn’t feel natural at all, but the shock made her shook her head. Flora nodded, leaving the bed to do what she had been told, but Atlas’ hand stopped her for a second. “And stay afterward...please.”

Something strange crossed Flora’s face at the same time the grip tendered and let her go. Atlas tried to stretch her fingers — _all_ her fingers, she noticed— and her back, starting to feel more dizzy as she realized her position and her surroundings. It was all fuzzy before her eyes and she tried to rub that feeling away.

Although Flora closed the door with care, Atlas felt it like a woman’s cry in her head. The maid quickly returned by her lady’s side, undressing again, but she stopped her. Flora obliged, taking Atlas’ hands with hers and rubbing her thumbs over the skin in soothing way.

“Where am I?” she asked, more to herself than to the woman before her. A flash of purple made her blink fast before looking at Flora in panic. “Where is Camilla? Where are...” their names got stuck in her throat, feeling her own tears start to pile up in her eyes.

  
“Lady Camilla must be in her way to the fortress, along with your siblings,” Flora seemed hurt, but she hid it as much as she could even when Atlas knew already why she felt like that. “Maybe they’ll arrive by dawn, milady; we should go back to sleep if you want to be fresh to meet them.”

Her smile was accompanied by a soft kiss in the corner of her mouth, pushing her gently to the bed. Atlas stiffened when the woman sat over her hips and lead her hands to her thighs. She leant over her and kissed her, giving her cuddles to soothe her fully. Atlas felt less in panic but it took her a few hours in silence, with a sleeping Flora cuddling by her side, to actually know _when_  she was in time.

She had been fighting Takumi’s possessed body not cuddling Flora after sex, like she did a year ago.

When she managed to fall asleep again, it was a brief but troubled slumber. Atlas was woken up with Felicia’s giggles and Flora fully dressed as their affair never happened. Her body felt alien, but she followed the soft orders from her maids when they helped her bath and dress properly to her siblings’ visit. She discovered that not only she had all her fingers, but her right leg was unburned along with no sight of the long scars she inflicted to herself _that_ day, when she scratched her neck out of rage. Her fingers had linger in her belly for a second, firm and without the scar _Ignatius_ left in his birth, before Gunter clasped her armor.

She hid the shock of the changes in her body under the excuse of not having much sleep the past night. Atlas allowed herself to grin when the fixed breakfast for her was there, in her desk. She asked Flora to stay while she ate, offering her some bread before talking again.

“How long do we have this going?” the maid frowned at the question and Atlas flickered her fingers to point them. Flora understood and her face lit with something similar to anger and pride. “Did I do _her_ already?”

She only needed that point to make the woman stand up, but she didn’t care. Atlas sat instead, sipping tiredly her cup full of warm spiced wine. Now that she knew that, the date was clear for her but only made her body tire more. How was it possible she was _there_? The room started to spin around her, but she gripped the ebony desk to keep herself together.

“I know I’m nothing compared to Lady Camilla,” Flora whispered and Atlas chuckled lightly, making her even angrier, “But I wish you don’t speak about her when you had your tongue on me not long ago,” Atlas’ laugh was accompanied by a little shook of her head. “I would like to retire, milady, since you seem perfectly fine now.”

With the room still spinning around and her heartbeat drumming in her ears, Atlas stood up to catch Flora’s arm on time and pull her into a kiss. The cold from her lips calmed her, making her settle her heart rate slowly, and she didn’t pull away entirely till the maid had her arms around her neck. She knew her retainer could see the tears clouding her eyes, but she pressed another chaste kiss into her lips.

“I’m sorry,” the apology sound strange to both, but it came from the deepest corner of Atlas’ torn heart. “It was just...everything was feeling a bit fuzzy, I don’t want to ruin everything in front of them, you know? You know I get to sincere when I’m sleep deprived,” Flora tightened her hug a bit, mumbling something she didn’t catch. “Take the day off, okay? Rest, eat something you like, I don’t know,” Atlas caressed Flora’s hair and the mere act made the maid almost melt. “Seize the day as you please, I don’t want you to be uncomfortable.”

Flora almost didn’t believe her, but a rougher kiss made it crystal clear. She stayed till Atlas told her she needed a few minutes alone, and in the silence of the room she had a breakdown. She fell on her knees, hugging herself while thick tears started to run down her cheeks and her whole body aching with the pain of the wounds she once had. She stripped herself enough to inspect the place where Takumi had shot her and she groaned, trying to bring all her anger together and shift into her dragon self...unsuccessfully. Atlas hugged herself again, this time her arms trying to cover her belly.

A hand went to find where Benòit’s ring usually hanged, but there was any ring.

Because she wasn’t marry in that time. She wasn’t mother of two boys who were left crying over their dead father and probably their dead mother by now; she wasn’t the monster who murdered her brothers yet...who almost killed a sister with her toxic behaviour and destroyed Azura and Laslow’s life.

She still was the woman who was meant to be the end of them all.

* * *

Her strength back then was still lacking, but Atlas knew as soon as she had her dragon curse again, everything would be normal in that aspect. Xander —her sweet big brother, with the soft and severe smile instead of the night terrors and the troubled look in his eyes— tried to push her a bit, telling her she won’t be able to go with them to Krakenburg if she didn’t hit him at least once.

The statement almost made her fall against his last offensive, with the thought of being under extreme vigilance again and living the rest of her days in the fortress till she died eventually from sadness or killed herself when Flora was sleeping. She was so close to not win, like she once did, so close...but her feet were quick and a twist of her blunt blade made her brother fall from his horse.

Xander’s laugh was painful in Atlas’ ears, but she grinned while she helped him to get on his feet. Leo was by their side almost immediately, his usually bored expression on even when he was grinning like no tomorrow.

“Oh come on!” Leo’s voice was kind of cheerful —not bloomy, not tired, not almost in the verge of an anxiety attack— when Atlas told him with an attempt of fondness that his cape was backwards. “You should had told me before, darn it!”

“How dramatic and adorable little brother we have,” Xander put a strand of Atlas’ hair behind her ear, ending her laugh naturally when his brother was gone to fix his clothes. He seemed to weight what he was going to say before actually speaking again. “Something’s troubling you, _little princess_? You really look...tired.”

Atlas shook her head, trying to form the right words to let him know she didn’t sleep much, but they didn’t make their way to her throat. The nickname resonated through her body with the strength of thousand horses running over her. Last time she had heard that was before Atlas came back to the Astral Realm, covered in her other big brother’s blood and already dead inside.

She did held Xander’s big hand with hers instead, trying to not loose herself in memories and recompose before Leo came back to find them to get lunch.

“My, my, last time I saw you two holding hands, my dear Atlas was still a baby,” her voice —the old one, the sultry and nice one; not the ghost of what she was before she broke her— cut through Atlas like a burning knife, making her held her breath. “Aren’t you going to welcome us, honey?”

She almost threw herself to hug Camilla when she turned around, deciding on only melt in her embrace like the Atlas in _that_ time did when it happened. She stayed a bit longer holding her when the last memory she had of Camilla strike back—the axe diving on her armor and her skin, the panic in her burgundy eyes. But when Elise talked, her tears were almost falling from her tired eyes.

“Being with you makes me so happy too, big sister!” Atlas caught Elise in time to hug her and spin, hiding her face in her soft blond hair. “I love you so much! I love you more than anything in the whole, wide world!”

Atlas didn’t care when Leo started to bicker against Elise’s behaviour, she held her tighter trying to feel her better. The safe and sound Elise; not the deaf Elise due to a explosion she had left behind; not the one that stopped from talking to her after knowing what she did to Camilla.

She felt so confused yet so relieved her siblings were still safe and sound.

Afterwards, during lunch, Camilla announced what she already knew as the start of the falling of everything but she still smiled surprised nonetheless, her anxiety digging deeper in her stomach. Everything went smoothly till Lilith showed up. Atlas felt her lungs being ripped off her chest without mercy, making her ask herself if someone was making this living hell her personal punishment. If the dragon girl did notice how her hands trembled when Atlas touched her, she didn’t say a thing about it.

The dizziness came back in no time when Gunter announced it was time to part, with Xander making the point of not making their father wait longer. When Flora entered the hall running, Atlas locked eyes with her and pushed her aside after excusing herself to get something she forgot in her room.

“I can’t do this, I can’t do this Flora,” Atlas’ hands started to mess with her own hair, locks of crimson being between her fingers when she untied her hair completely. The maid didn’t know how to do. “I can’t...go there and...I can´t...” she looked at her companion, helpless and with panic in her eyes.

“You had always wanted to go to Windmire, milady,” Flora held Atlas in her arms, before pulling her into a kiss. “What’s wrong now? You should not worry if...if, _specially_ , Lady Camilla and Lord Xander are there with you, even Jakob is going with you,” she forced a smile and looked at Atlas in her eyes, trying to reassure her somehow even when the worry was splattered all over her face.

Atlas was sick. She felt in the thin line between throwing up or throwing herself from the tower her room was. Flora still held her close, so it would be easy to untie the dagger in her thigh and stab herself, doing everyone a favor in the future. Another kiss made her realize that Flora’s tears started to fall from her eyes, and all her panic got bottle up for a second to hear what more she had to say.

“I think this is a goodbye, milady,” she chuckled softly, hurting Atlas without realizing. Her hands went to her hair after she made the tired and sick woman turn around. The mess was tamed in less than a couple of minutes. “For now, of course...but...” she looked troubled about what to say next, only sighing.

Camilla’s voice cut their moment right when Flora was gonna keep talking. Atlas rushed a final kiss, untying the dagger with expert fingers and hiding it in her back before her older sister opened the door to discover them with fake relief lighting up their faces when they found the piece of jewelry Atlas ‘had forgotten’.

Atlas left Flora in her room, hurt but hiding it behind a warm smile, feeling every memory of Camilla triggering her mind when she encircled her waist with an arm and a lovely smile.

“We did decide you’ll ride Marzia with me, my darling,” Camilla’s smile was so pretty back then, Atlas thought. “She’s so excited to see you! I hope you feel the same, she’s been waiting for you all this time.”

The only thing Atlas felt when she saw Camilla’s wyvern was fear and sickness. She felt even more sick when she mounted before her sister, caressing Marzia’s neck scales with trembling fingers along a invisible line. She wouldn’t ever forget how her own claws and later her sword cut through scale, flesh and bone.

Marzia’s shriek sounded pretty much similar to Camilla when Atlas had sacrificed her wyvern in the battlefield, after the mount was left half dead by a Faceless.

* * *

Ganglari glowed in the darkness of her room, making Atlas to shiver again against the wall. She could feel it throbbing as if the sword was another extension of her body, another torn heart. When she first saw it again, Atlas felt her throat close with a rush of anxiety, but she couldn't decline her father's gift even when she knew what the object would do in the near future. Her fear got eclipsed by emptiness when Garon had present her Kaze and Rinkah as their hostages. She had only twist Ganglari in her hand and defeated them without letting Jakob or Gunter to get near them.

She wanted to warn Kaze somehow, to let him know that she _knew_ , but Leo had been quick to let them unconscious to later set them free. Even then, Atlas' throat was closed, feeling the knot there got tighter when they talked with her. She knew that soon they'll met again, but the urge of telling them she knew everything remained there till they were out of sight.

Eventually she returned to her room, along with Xander, and when had closed the door behind her, she had thrown Ganglari with all her might against the wall. The sword seemed to mock her, with the low glow and making her feel dizzy again. Atlas tried to strip her armor as much as she could, only letting her with the undershirt, before she had dragged herself against the cold wall in a weak attempt to regain some control of her body.

The worst part of recalling everything was trying to suppress the emotion of being surrounded by a their past siblings selves. It was painful to watch them happier than they were by her side, from where they belonged in the future. Xander, with the tender smile, had been worried about her since they left the fortress and he had held her hand under the table when the servants were bringing the dessert. Leo had been telling her about a new book he bought, his eyes clear and without the apathy she had been used to, while Elise tried to make up for the time lost by doing a list of events she didn't have a clue about.

Having her little sister being so eager to talk to her, almost made her cry. Atlas had never been an individual which tended to be emotional in that way, but being tired and confused was starting to mess up with her usual self. Her body felt on fire since she woke up by Flora's side _that_ day and having Elise talking to her with the cheerful tone she once had, only added more fire to the pyre already burning inside her.

Camilla, however, had been silent most of the time during dinner. Atlas, sitting across her, knew something troubled her right off the bat. She was picking on her behaviour, almost as she was sensing her tension. Trying to act like she once was —not like a vessel of it, tired enough to think more often than not to end her life in the past, doing a favor to the rest.

Her cruelness started to die when _Ignatius_ and _Kanna_ had been born; acting like that was a mere lie she couldn't perform fully even when she tried.

Atlas' eyes darted where her armor lied in the floor. She had hidden Flora's dagger well between her belongings before anyone could notice, being able to take it off when she was safe behind the door of her room in Clarkenstein. She tried to stand up, using the wall as her support, and walked towards the silver weapon. The rubies in the handle seemed to darken in her presence and when she put her hand on it, they seemed to warm up slightly, knowing their former owner. Atlas —she and the one from that time— had given the dagger to her 'concubine' as a gift after one of her encounters. The silver dagger had been a gift from her Father and it had been owned by the former second queen of Nohr, Arete.

She only smiled weakly at the dagger, playing with it skillfully. She only had to move her hand fast and everything would be done. She wouldn't be the death of her brothers, the living hell of others, someone considered a monster between her army and 'allies'.

Ganglari seemed to glow brighter, adverting the danger, when more thoughts like those started to arise in Atlas' mind. She wouldn't feel anything if she stabbed herself in the right pla—

"What the fuck are you doing!?" Camilla's alarmed voice didn't startled her but when she slapped the dagger out of her sister hands, Atlas had taken her with unknown strength by her wrist and a severe look in her dark crimson eyes. She didn't reply but Camilla's sweet face was contorted with worry first and then pain. "You're hurting m—"

Atlas let her go almost immediately, with the triggering memory of her sister's face marked when a situation like this had already happened. The fire inside her unleashed for a few seconds, making her to step back and put her back against the farthest wall in the room. She felt again the uncontrolled roar in her ears, the screams and the clash of swords, taking over everything.

"Get away from me," she groaned, her eyes wide open and her hands pulling her hair. "Don't get closer, go Camilla, I'm going to hurt you again," Atlas felt her lungs burn with each breath, her panic showing through her body language. "Please, go away..."

Camilla didn't move at all, shocked by her sister's reaction. Her free hand went to her wrist, trying to cover the red marks from Atlas' grip. Was it a night terror? Or just a nightmare? Gunter had told Xander that Atlas had been having regular nightmares lately, becoming violent more often than not and having episodes of 'sudden amnesia', in the old knight's words.

However, she never expected to reach the point where she actually snapped a dagger from Atlas' hand, ready to dive in soft flesh.

"It was just a nightmare," Camilla managed to mumble, taking little steps towards her sister to not startle her. "My darling, you are here with me now. Whatever it was, it's now gone..." she kneeled in front of Atlas, trying to hold her hands in vain.

"No, it's here," Atlas' voice sounded choked, full of fear, while her fists hit her chest. "I'm the nightmare, 'Milla. I'm your nightmare, I'm all of you nightmare," her eyes were fixed in her bare feet and Camilla's heart squeezed hard in her chest. "You have to kill me," she finally look into the wyvern rider's eyes, her hands holding tightly Camilla's finally. "Kill me, big sister, end this before I hurt one of you..."

Atlas' sobs got muffled by Camilla screaming for help.

* * *

"I'm afraid that wouldn't be possible, milady."

Her energy was drained after seeing her father, but the only sound of his voice filled her with her lost cruelness for a second. Atlas peered from Camilla's arms the man in front of them, the half mask shining lightly at the same time Iago placed a hand over the other.

"Why ever not, Iago?" Her sister's voice was poisonous by that time, filled with every ounce of malice Camilla had in her.

Atlas stopped from listening after that, trying to focus in her surroundings to not lose the last drop of control she had left in her body. Instead, she rejoiced in the dark mage's fate by Leo's magic. She did remember how the man literally melt in the magic fire, but she had been left with the desire of feeling his tender flesh torn under her claws and his blood staining her scales.

Why she should pay attention when she knew what would happen next? Garon appeared not long after Iago explained why Camilla couldn't accompany her into the mission. Atlas' tired smile turned quickly into a grin when Hans presented himself before them.

The soldier was a pain in the ass and when Xander approached her, warning tone in his voice, to inform about Hans, she just laughed it off. She already knew the man will try to kill her, she already knew how much grief he tried to bring to her family. But her baby, her sweet Kanna, ended with his miserable life in a twist of his sword.

With the image of her kid in mind, Atlas got behind Gunter with his help, trying to rest briefly till they arrived to the Bottomless Canyon. When she caught a glimpse of the Hoshidans position, she was quick on her feet to end the whole thing before Hans killed many of them in his own. Jakob healed her just before her blade hit the samurai leader and defeated him after a few clash of blades. Gunter smiled at her proudly when all the battle ended and that hit her heart like an arrow. Out all the people in the army, Gunter had remained along Shura as one of the few who still were fond of her. He, along her kids and her husband, was one of the few that asked her to spend some time together aside from battle.

"You’re the leader of these troops? Pah. You’re nothing more than a girl," a low growl installed in Atlas' throat when a well-known voice made its way to her ears. Kaze's twin was there again, like he was once in the past -- Atlas remembered him perish the night she encountered Ryoma, Kaze crying over his body when she went out from the room where her own older brother was lying lifeless. "I've come to claim your life," she openly laughed at the man's words and it only enraged him more. "Destroy them!"

Xander and the rest appeared in time, just when she was about to turn around and fight him.

Everything was repeating itself, every event by now was just the _same_. A cruel copy that pained her like an iron claw, going deeper and deeper in her brain.

However, when Hans threw Gunter to the void and her arm shifted, she finally felt free in someway. All her blood, her rage and her frustration gave her enough liberation to attack the berserker at her fullest in her unexperienced body. It felt so good to let everything go since she woke up in that nightmare.

But the _nightmare_ didn't stop there for her and Ganglari pulled her into the void too.

Instead of watching astonished the free fall, she closed her eyes and embraced the feeling. She left herself drift away with the vertigo, hoping she would finally meet her end, but she knew that wasn't what was going to happen. She already knew Lilith was going to save her, bringing her to the Astral Realm, but Atlas tried to focus in that feeling of 'freedom' as long as she could before she stopped from feeling at all.

When she woke up, however, waiting for Lilith to explain what just happened, she took a good look to the place. She hadn't change a single bit of it in her time, liking the strong appearance of the place...but as soon as the now-dragon Lilith ended her chatter, her own words felt strange coming out from her lips.

"We should change this place a bit, don't you think?" her tired tone was accompanied by a curious look from Lilith. "It's...I don't know...it doesn't feel like _home_."

Lilith didn't get her words at all, but she promised to change it as Atlas wished. Obviously that place wasn't home anymore, if she ever feel a place as that once. The little dragon fixing some other stuff under the nostalgic gaze of the woman. Would she have to watch her die soon? Would she have to leave her body on top of that mountain again? When she died, Atlas had started to feel more and more empty as time passed by. The death of her mother and her brothers had made it worse along with the suffering she inflicted to her other siblings.

For a second, in that dreamy place, Atlas wondered if something would change at all this time. Maybe she was just there to relive all the wrong she had done before; maybe she was just a silent spectator, left there by the Dusk Dragon as a eternal punishment.

All the thinking left a confused and alone Atlas in the Bottomless Canyon again. She tried to focus on what was going to happen next, feeling again that crazy dizziness when the memories of what happened started to come back to her mind. She almost had the memory wrapped around her finger when something hit her in the back of the neck before she could take a step towards Krakenburg, ready to report on her mission.

Nevertheless, Rinkah was faster than her scattered brain to take the lead.

 

**Author's Note:**

> This will be a story about my Conquest!Kamui, Atlas, which traveled in time to the day where everything began and have her redemption arc through the Revelations route. It'll also have mentions of Birthright through fragments of memories. I started to build Atlas characterization way way before I played the game, so the shock was quite huge when I saw that the canon Kamui was the opposite of mine. It'll also have some changes in the plot line, mostly from Conquest Route's side. However, I hope you enjoy it and here I'll leave her appareance: 
> 
> https://i.imgur.com/VE3VKR8.png


End file.
